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While experts in the US warned that the US was not prepared to contain an Ebola outbreak, citing mistakes and missteps in the handling of the first US Ebola case which resulted in the death of Thomas Duncan last week, US officials and US President Barack Obama rejected increasing calls for travel restrictions to and from the affected areas of West Africa.

“It is America–our doctors, our scientists, our know-how–that leads the fight to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa,” said Obama in rejecting travel restrictions, stressing his faith in US doctors and health facilities.

CDC Director Tom Friedman also dismissed calls for travel restrictions and isolation of the West African nations where the Ebola outbreak has claimed thousands of lives.

Friedman rationalized his position by saying that isolating the outbreak regions may cause the disease to spread more widely and cause greater risk to America.

“It’s a tough question that’s coming up and will keep coming up,” Friedman said. “Our perspective–very much like the situation with regard to the individual–is to take actions that seem like they may work. The approach of isolating countries–it’s harder to get help into that country and it may enable the disease to spread more widely there and potentially become more of a risk to us here.”

However, Friedman admitted that the risk was not controlled.

“The bottom line here is the plain truth that we can’t make the risk zero until the outbreak is controlled in West Africa,” said Friedman.

Several US politicians have made public calls for travel restrictions.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Humble) requested that the president restrict travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

“I believe that the recent Ebola case in Dallas highlights the fact that non-essential travel to the affected region is putting Americans at unnecessary risk,” Poe wrote in his request.

Texas US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration questioning the measures it was taking to protect America from Ebola.

“Due to the Obama administration’s unclear approach to addressing the threat of the Ebola virus, Americans–particularly the Texans who have possibly been exposed–deserve specific answers to how the administration is addressing travel to and from the countries impacted by the disease,” Cruz wrote.

US Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) also warned of a need to increase health security. “The propensity of people coming out of those countries may be to get out of there as fast as possible,” said Murphy. “Even if that means lying on their records. We can’t necessarily just use that verbal screening process. CDC and NIH are going to tell us how they are adapting and changing this, because the current process apparently is not effective.”

Experts in the US have also called for restrictions.

Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, an assistant professor of public health at Penn State University, who helped set up an Ebola clinic in Nigeria weeks ago, said of the outbreak, “This is a Category 5 hurricane. It just happens to be viral.”

Phenelle Segal, president of Montgomery County-based Infection Control Consulting Services and a former infection prevention analyst for the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, warned, “Unless the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention take extreme measures to prevent the universal spread of the disease, we could possibly end up with a pandemic.

“I think as soon as we started seeing West Africa go out of control with Ebola, that was the time [to impose travel restrictions.]”

In West Africa, the disease has claimed 3,300 lives with no end in sight. The UN has said of the outbreak that it is surging “beyond control,” and warned of a worldwide disaster.

Ebola cases in West Africa have doubled every three weeks. In Sierra Leone 121 people died of Ebola Sunday.

UN officials have stated that a total air quarantine would not stop the spread of Ebola, but would delay it.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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The largest Ebola outbreak in history, which began in Guinea earlier this year before spreading to other West African nations, has become the subject of a gene sequencing study by a Harvard team already well-versed in similar viruses. The research has discovered that the current Ebola outbreak has already mutated hundreds of times and continues to mutate rapidly. Scientists will use the data from genome sequencing to find weaknesses in the virus, which can be attacked with drugs.

The Harvard team already is fluent and actively working on similar viruses in West Africa. The team had been working on Lassa Virus before taking on Ebola.

Pardis Sabeti, a computer geneticist at Harvard University, said that the team’s experience with Lassa Virus was helpful in understanding Ebola because of the similar symptoms of the two viruses, particularly hemorrhagic fever.

“If you look at the three published Guinean strains,” commented Sabeti, “these are all linked. These all appear to be one chain of events.

Read more: “When Well-Managed, an Ebola Outbreak Can Be Stopped” – UN with Affected Nations Launch Joint $100 Million Response Plan

“It seems that there is one entry into Sierra Leone, that spread throughout.

“We see hundreds of mutations–over 300 mutations–that separate this virus from past viruses. We see 55 mutations that have just happened within the course of this outbreak event. And we also see hundreds of mutations that are happening within individuals–things that one day may become common in the population and fixed between individuals.

“Many of those are functional, so we’re going to be paying attention to those.

“The understanding of the pathogenesis,” said Christian Happi, Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infections Disease in Nigeria, referring to the development of drugs or vaccines, “that actually provides crucial information for going on to develop whatever tools.”

Drugs and vaccines are built on protein sequences, which are build on the genome sequence. Scientists will be able to use the research data to see how genome sequences are changing and identify which parts of the Ebola virus will be vulnerable and which parts will disappear from the strain.

“The type of genome sequencing we do informs whether or not the drugs, the vaccines, the diagnostics that we are using are going to be viable as the virus continues to mutate and change,” said Sabeti.

The Harvard team has already been active in West Africa during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. They set up diagnosis and surveillance on the ground.

By James Haleavy

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A Mayo Clinic task force has put together an updated set of recommendations for cholesterol treatment. The last guideline update took place in 2001, and several changes have been recommended, including a recommendation that not all patients currently prescribed statins and other cholesterol-lowering medications should take them. The task force also had new recommendations for people with rheumatoid arthritis or AIDS, and those who had received certain organ transplants.

This means that people with cholesterol issues or concerns will need to consult their doctors again soon to reassess their treatment and prevention options. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, MD, task force chairman and director of preventive cardiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota Benefit told The Speaker that people should see their doctors “basically to discuss the expected benefit and risks.”

“The benefit should be described in terms of absolute benefit,” Lopez-Jimenez told us. “How many people like me would not have a heart attack after 10 years taking the medicine? And not taking the medicine?”

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guideline needed to be updated, stated Lopez-Jimenez. The last update took place 12 years ago. The recommendations were published as “ACC/AHA Prevention Guideline
2013; ACC/AHA Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults” on Circulation Journals.

“We agree with many points of the [existing] guideline, but there are some key areas where we do not completely agree or we wanted to expand and provide more guidance,” said Lopez-Jimenez.

Several changes have been recommended.

While the current ACC/AHA cholesterol treatment guideline recommends high doses of the strongest statins to most men over the age of 65, the Mayo task force found no evidence to recommend this based solely on age.

Rather than medication combined with healthy lifestyle habits to prevent cardiovascular disease, the task force recommended lifestyle changes–exercise and diet–followed by an evaluation before prescribing statins.

Diabetics over the age of 40 have been recommended to take statins, but the task force concluded that not all diabetics have the same risk of heart attacks, and recommended against statins in some diabetics over 40: those in whom there is a low risk of heart attack or stroke based on the ACC/AHA calculator.

Rather than making cholesterol medications based on generalities such as age, diabetes and prevention, the task force recommended a treatment approach based on individual needs, and also recommended shared decision-making in treatment.

“The patients need to be involved in the decision making, understanding the anticipated benefit and the potential risks with numbers,” Lopez-Jimenez told us.

The task force added some patients to the list of those for whom statins were recommended. Rheumatoid arthritis, kidney and heart transplant recipients, and AIDS sufferers were among the new inclusions.

The recommendations was scheduled to be published in the August 14 edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, along with an editorial.

Mayo Clinic Task Force Challenges Some Recommendations in Updated Cholesterol Treatment Guideline

By Heidi Woolf

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“The best thing a mother can do for her newborn is breastfeed,” said the UN Friday, “which does more than help children survive–it helps them to thrive with benefits that last a lifetime.” The executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, made the statement, urging promotion of breastfeeding everywhere.

“Immediate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth could prevent one in five unnecessary deaths,” said Lake, kicking off World Breastfeeding Week. “That’s more than 500,000 children every year. More than 1,500 children every day.”

Fewer than half the world’s newborns benefit from breastfeeding, said the UN. Even fewer are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

“Breastfeeding is the foundation of good nutrition,” said Lake, “reducing the risk of malnourishment in early childhood and the risk of obesity later in life. By supporting nutrition and strengthening the bond between mother and child, breastfeeding also supports healthy brain development.”

World Breastfeeding Week takes place between August 1 and 7. This year the celebration will highlight the link between breastfeeding and Millennium Development Goals, particularly decreasing child mortality.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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With the intention of marking “a turning point” in the intensifying Ebola outbreak plaguing three West African nations, the WHO met with the presidents of all the affected nations Friday to launch a joint $100 million response plan.

Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) met the leaders of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire in the Guinean capital.

“When well-managed, an Ebola outbreak can be stopped,” said Chan, referencing four decades of experience dealing with Ebola in Africa. “Ebola outbreaks can be contained. Chains of transmission can be broken. Together, we must do so.”

Chan called for an accurate and detailed mapping of the outbreak and an increase in information distribution about the facts of Ebola. Chan also called for an increase in aid workers. The WHO plan also stresses surveillance, particularly in border areas

Among the most serious problems associated with the African outbreak is that the region suffers from a lack of health education. To this point, the UN chief said that Ebola was a social problem, not a medical or public health problem.

“West Africa is facing its first outbreak of Ebola virus disease,” remarked Chan. “This is an unprecedented outbreak accompanied by unprecedented challenges. And these challenges are extraordinary.”

“West Africa’s outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses. The outbreak is by far the largest ever in the nearly four-decade history of this disease. It is the largest in terms of geographical areas already affected and others at immediate risk of further spread.

“The current outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it,” said Chan. “If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives, but also severe socio-economic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.”

The Ebola virus rapidly spreading in West Africa has infected 1,323 people, according to the WHO, among whom 729 have died. Of those 729, 60 have been health care workers.

The UN will meet August 6-7 to discuss whether the outbreak constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

UN

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A new study conducted by William Paterson University has ranked the healthiest fruit and vegetable superfoods. The 41-item list was compiled based on nutrient density, and is considered to be an important step toward defining and quantifying green foods based on their nutritional value in order to help consumers in choosing the healthiest foods.

The study, “Defining Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables: A Nutrient Density Approach,” was completed by William Paterson University’s Jennifer Di Doia, PhD, and published on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

The research employed a three-step process. First, potential powerhouse fruits and vegetables (PFV) were listed and nutrient and kilocalorie values were calculated for each PFV in their raw forms. A nutrient density score was calculated for each food, and limitations to the effective value of each nutrient were accounted for so that PFVs that were particularly rich in only one nutrient would not skew the results. Then, the most nutritious PFVs–containing the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) required 10 percent of daily nutrition–were selected and ranked.

Of 47 foods studied, only six did not measure up to the FDA requirements–raspberry, tangerine, cranberry, garlic, onion, and blueberry.

At the top of the list was watercress. Chinese cabbage, chard, beet green and spinach were also much higher in nutritional value by weight than other green superfoods. These top foods were found to be more than twice as nutritious as broccoli or red pepper, and around four times as nutritious as cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, tomatoe, lemon, lettuce, strawberries or oranges. In fact, Oranges, grapefruit, blackberry, leek, and sweet potato just barely made the list.

The researcher responsible for the study stated that she felt, “The focus on individual foods in terms of the nutrients they provide may facilitate better understanding of PFV than green leafy, yellow/orange, citrus, and cruciferous food groups that are emphasized,” but cautioned, “Foods within particular groups were studied; thus, other nutrient-dense items may have been overlooked. Because it was not possible to include phytochemical data in the calculation of nutrient density scores, the scores do not reflect all of the constituents that may confer health benefits.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

CDC

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University of Missouri researchers have proven that a drug used as a cholesterol lowering agent not only halts breast cancer progression, but can kill cancerous cells, offering new promise to the one-in-eight women who will suffer from breast cancer in their lives.

The drug therapy may even be more attractive than now-popular anti-hormone medicines, such as tamoxifen, because when tumor cells develop resistance to anti-hormone therapies the tumor cells continue to grow and spread, but because tumor cells need cholesterol to grow, the cholesterol-lowering drug starves the tumor cells. Not only that, cholesterol also contributes to anti-hormone resistance because cholesterol is converted into hormones in tumor cells, therefore lowering cholesterol should help hormone therapy.

The study, “Cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitors as potent novel anti-cancer agents: suppression of hormone-dependent breast cancer by the oxidosqualene cyclase inhibitor RO 48-8071,” was funded by a grant from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Program and the National Institutes of Health. The study was published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

“Because tumor cells grow rapidly they need to synthesize more cholesterol,” said Salman Hyder, lead researcher on the project. “Scientists working to cure breast cancer often seek out alternative targets that might slow or stop the progression of the disease, including the elimination of the cancerous cells. In our study, we targeted the production of cholesterol in cancer cells leading to death of breast cancer cells.”

The drug has already been tested on human breast cancer cells, and was found effective in reducing breast cancer cell growth. It also killed the cancer cells in many cases.

The research findings indicated that an estrogen receptor which causes tumor cells to grow was destroyed by the drug. This is thought to be the reason for the success of the drug in combating breast cancer.

The drug was then tested on mice with breast cancer and was found effective. The drug reduced the presence of estrogen receptors in the tumor cells.

The research team will next conduct further tests that they hope will lead to a drug that will both fight high cholesterol and breast cancer.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

University of Missouri